NICCOLO' CERIA climbing adventures

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domenica 12 novembre 2017

More than
three years have passed since my last visit in Scandinavia. Once again, the
suggestive nature and the beautiful granite rocks of the North made me unable
to resist at their call. After some long planning days, I decided to make a
trip back leaving home by the end of August.
This time I chose an alternative way to go: no flights, no rental cars and no pad-sizes restrictions
from inefficient and opportunist low cost companies. The first time I flew to
Sweden, Rayanair really kicked my ass with all of those bag regulations which
are never really clear and fixed. I thought I would have been way more flexible
driving my own car: I could move everywhere I wanted and I was free to carry
all the pads I needed.
The fact to drive a car towards such a far and savage place, can easily delete
the major impact that you would have dropping out of a plane instead. During
the long journey of 4 days, I had time to adapt myself to the different light and
to cooler air.
The impact has been smoothed thanks to the long drive and, once I got there,
despite the atmosphere was wild and a bit spooky, I was still in my comfort
zone.
Apart from a silly mistake in Oslo, I didn’t miss any directions in my route
and I was glad to have made the entire journey by using just an atlas and my
personal paper notebook J
For the entire length of the drive, I was lost inside my head and sunk into a
deep sense of solitude.
This feeling of loneliness made this journey shorter and it featured my drive
with a loose flow of thoughts.
Besides a handful of trite words with the owners of the guest houses, I haven’t
met any other people on my way and I was only led by the melodic sound of the
latest album of the Children of Bodom, which have been looped for almost 35
hours of drive.

My goals

The preview
of every trip starts way before than the trip itself. I began to realize I want
to go to Norway several years ago, but only at the beginning of the last Summer
I saw the first window opportunity.
My priority was to check Vingsand, a little fishermen’s helmet near the village
of Osen, located three hours North of Trondheim.
My summertime has been filled up with several doubts, painful injuries and
other troubles which made me shaky about my choice. But then, in August, I
finally got a clear idea: I wanted to go there to do Shantaram, the famous and infamous
strength-endurance testpiece put up by Bernd Zangerl.
The name of Shataram is probably correlated to the homonymous novel written by
Gregory David Roberts which I still have to read.
Besides Shataram, I saw other bouldering pictures from Vingsand, but they were
not really inspiring to be honest. This made my Norway trip seem like a solo-mission
to climb a single boulder problem: it was of course a risky deal, but I
believed it was worthy to try.
I knew I needed a good dose of patience: big efforts were for sure necessary to
climb it and having a wide dose of time could help me to deal with the weather
changing and the decadence of my skin.
It was more than one year than I didn’t try something that hard. So the fact to
have just a big aim in my mind made me more relaxed to avoid the trap of the
“to-do” madness, which makes you feel in rush to climb things.

Despite
Shantaram was at the top of the list and I was open to invest a lot of time in
it, I didn’t want to run out of my 20-days stay. I thought 20 days would have
been enough, considering all the downs of the weather, the skin managing and
the resting time. If I would fail, I could always come back.
After this window of time, I really cared to move towards Helsinki for my
second goal: The world classic Nalle Hukkataival’s The Globalist.
Then, before coming back home, I wanted to stop in Vastervik with Rudy to check
all the new lines put up by the myth and good friend of mine Stefan Rasmussen.

Ups and Downs

- Diamanten

The first
UP regards Diamanten, a majestic
granite diamond put up by Nalle Hukkataival in 2011.
I can’t hide I was really doubtful about this one: I wasn’t sure if my weak
finger would have borne the traumatic effort on the key-crimp. That hold seemed
to be way too awkward and painful to be used on such a steep angle. But I was
wrong J
The first day, half part of the line was soaking wet, but the hard sequence was
dry enough to pull.
I was extremely excited to crimp such a nasty crimp without feeling any pain
after 6 month of suffering. That was actually one of the best feelings I had
during the whole trip.
Everything was bright and promising as I hoped.
I sent Diamanten on my second day.

Diamanten, Vingasand (NOR). Photo Stefan Kuerzi

- Shantaram

Shataram obviously involved much more time and fatigue
to be achieved.
Three sessions on it were long, tough, complex and very intensive for my
muscles. But above all, during most of the time I faced an apocalyptic wind and
some harsh climate.
The third day the weather was on my side, presenting sunny vibes and a clear
sky: we could finally open our pads without any keepers.
To be honest I thought it was too perfect: It’s hard when you wake up in such a
crispy day, but then you know you are still in the working process. So, considering
how rare it was to find that friction, I desired to have that weather for my
sending day.
I mean, I was almost sure it was going to be another simple day in the office
working on sequences. But, once again, I misunderstood my body’ signs. J
For several reasons my feelings switched to the positive side go after go. At
some point, I found a really interesting and smart beta for the middle part: Instead of climbing that
part normally, I focused myself in running away as quick as possible, keeping
energies for the sequences where I needed more precision and a longer hanging time.
Since then, everything started to work in a smoother way.
This beta made me save skin quality, energies and core. Finally, noting this
progress, I got an ultra mental boost which replaced my physically energy drop.
When I set up for the last go I knew it would have been the last shot of the
day. And, that was probably the last day with that perfect friction.
In my imagination, the window opportunity was very open before pulling. Somehow
I passed through that window and I reached the top!

Shantaram, Ramsoy (NOR). Photo Stefan Kuerzi

- King Size

Unless you watched “The Northern beast”,
it is hard that you can bear King Size
in your mind. King Size is a 50 degrees overhanging
face, features by a brown/red rock which goes up for 11 meters. Fortunately to
me, the line cut it off towards left at 8/9 meters high. The prominence of the
wall is also amplified by the empty and large landing and by the thin and
raised hillside plateau on which it leans on.
By the way, from that spot, you have a wide view on the fjords bay and you can
admire some of the best sunsets in Osen.
For some reasons, I didn’t manage to check King
Size until the end of the trip. When I woke up one of the last mornings,
the forecast changed dramatically and that was going to be my unique and last
opportunity to do it.
The second thing I found out later was that my rope was too short to bind it around
a solid tree. So I had to use two really tiny birches, planted into a thick,
but not safe, layer of moss.
The moment of doing the anchor is usually filled up with dark feelings and scary
images. Few days before, some local climbers asked me if it was worthy to die
for King Size. Obviously I said yes. Who is going to die falling from an
highball??
But then, while I was making the anchor around those two skinny birches, some
spooky thoughts began to plague my mind. How could the top rope checking be
actually scarier than the climbing itself? It felt ridiculous, but warring at
the same time.
So I quickly removed the harness and I took care about the situation: I put a
little pad right at the bottom of the vertical line of the rope. Nothing really
changed, but that was enough to make me do the blind faith step into the
unaware.
Not only the top rope session went safely, but even the ground up ascent was a
success!

King Size, Vingsand (NOR)

- The Globalist

What made TheGlobalist
so special to me, was not only the boulder itself, but the time which passed by
since the first time I realazied I wanted to do it. Globalist was one of my teenager’s
dreams and it took me a bit to make it real.
I have been often wondering how the rock would have been, how the textures would
have felt and how beautiful the place around would have looked like.
The magical part came when I could finally check it out in reality.
I think that my solo approach towards Globalist
was probably even more special and emotional than the climbing itself.

The Globalist, Sipoo (FIN)

- The Down

Seldom a
long trip is only made by bright moments. It is highly guaranteed that few
drops might happen at some point and you have to reckon them. I am not
negative, but I think this just a balanced rule of life.
But be honest, I didn’t expected to get seriously injured once again after the
troubles I had in the last year.
Trying one of the most legendary and hardest Scandinavia’s boulders, Circus Elephant Syndrome, I heard three noisy
pops all the way from my back until the top of my elbow. This happened on
the second move of the problem, where the body position is even too weird to be
described with words.

To cut the story short, I couldn’t climb anymore after that.
After 5 weeks of rest, I started to hang a little bit and now it is slowly
improving day by day with little steps. But it is still impossible to lock my
arm.
These feedbacks make me feel it will take a while to be over, so I need to arm
myself with patience and positive vibes to heal it up.

The RMI
doesn’t show any big issue in my muscles, labrums, joints, tendons or
ligaments, except for a little triceps tear which definitively doesn’t justify
the pops I heard and the pain I had for weeks.
Doctors and physiotherapists say it could deal of a multiple nerve tear.
Does any of you have any similar problems while climbing?
If yes, some tips would be more than appreciated.After the Pop

After the
injury, all the climbing games were definitively close. I have been browsing around
for one day until when the boredom started to kill me.
I was lucky to be Helsinki. Despite I had a short stay in the city, my time was
enough to realize I was in a great place with awesome people.
So it was time to do different activities and fill up the rest of my weekly
trip.
I have been out with Ville and Thomas, two good friends of mine who filmed my
climbs in the first three days.
We decided to make a little clip about what happened, so we kept filming doing some
interviews and making some visits: we checked out the classic sector of Myllis
and we also went to see the myth of the Lappnor project.
One day, they carried me to the Bodom lake. This lake has a dark and grim story
behind: In the summer of 1960, three teenagers had been killed by an unknown slayer
while they were camping on the lake’ shores. Ville knew the exact and precise
spot where the tragedy took place and I took a sit there for a while.
Trip ended on a sunny and warm Sunday among the best Helsinki’s tourist
attractions.

SIlent night, Bodom Night. Photo Ville Kurru

Final chapter

Despite the
pain was persisting like hell, I didn’t want to bail my brother at last for the Vastervik trip.
In Vastervik I had my first climbing trip after my high school time and it is
where my traveling era has begun in 2013.
The memories were definitively bittersweet: sometimes they were painful like
needles, other days they felt lighter and easier to face. While other times I
enjoyed to think about those days.
We hooked up with Stefan Rasmussen who showed us all the new stuff.
Many boulders popped out of the moss since my last visit and it was hard to
keep my hands into the pockets, but at least the tour gave me a high dose of
motivation to come back soon.
Rudy was raging like a machine and he had a lot of time to dedicate at his
climbing. I envied him a lot, but I was happy to see him serene on the rock
after the troubles he faced in the last years.
Being injured, I had not many tasks to do and I tried to shoot him a bit. Here
below you find a couple of our outcomes.

Trip ended
at the beginning of October and Scandinavia became one of my top destinations
ever.
The first goals are already set up for the next time: No injury first. Then, Circus Elephant Syndrome.

lunedì 10 aprile 2017

The last
three weeks here in Fontainebleau haven’t been only golden moments, good
climbing and pain au chocolat. For the first time I really felt that some
reflections about the future of bouldering and the current state of the holds
should be needed.

I have been
in the climbing scene since 14 years now, and almost 10 in the rock climbing
world. I also grew up in a gym like wide part of the new generation of kids
does nowadays. I must admit I haven’t been always perfect, pure and 100 %
ethically clean in what I have climbed so far. I made several mistakes during
the past and, still now, I am often learning new shades about this topic,
trying to go deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the good approach that a
rock climber needs. Hard to admit, but learning the unwritten laws of
bouldering might take a while. Ethics and respect are probably values you
acquire during a relatively long path. The learning process happens if you are
flexible to catch small details and if you are lucky enough to meet the few
climbers who still put passion and respect into the outdoor bouldering.

All of this
is hard to match by these days, especially considering that even the most media
climbers aren’t often the most clean. In fact, most of the celebrities can’t be
taken as examples under this side. 10 years ago we were definitively living in
a different community, and I felt blessed to have know the last wave of this way
of living bouldering. It was somehow harder and less comfortable, but
definitively richer with dreams, magic and real values.

Rocks aren’t
stationary as we imagine. They changed from the smallest details to the biggest
chunk. Our short lives hide us the truth that the game we are playing is just a
matter of time. Everything we climb was dust and it will return to dust in the
future. This is the nature we belong to.

But, dramatically,
even in a shorter period of time, boulders can be altered. And certainly not
only for natural reasons.

Having put
up a decent numbers of lines, I could note how the holds change during the flow
of the seasons and how the holds can alter ascent after ascent. Even if it
deals of micro details, it’s rare that we can repeat the problem in the exact
and same state as the first ascentionist did. There are plenty of examples
around, especially on soft kinds of rock like sandstone or limestone. Boulders change
for natural reasons in long terms of time and for human being impact in a
shorter period of time. We can definitively manage our use, limiting the ruin
of the rock. So, we are somehow responsible of all of this deterioration
process.

And seeing
how bouldering is getting more and more popular by these days, the state of the
rock will probably depend more and more on our behavior as the years roll on.
We are responsible of the heritage we have and protecting all of this should be
our first priority. It should, because apparently it is not what we are actually
doing.

I walked
through many areas this time here in Font and it was, in some sort of ways, sad
and ridiculous to note how some holds currently are. If you would take few
steps into the Forest, you can count endless doses of tickmarks left and, most
impressive, touching some holds which are not the same anymore. Few times ago
climbers who haven’t any ethic didn’t brush the boulders at the end before
leaving. Now it seems that they don’t even use a brush for their whole session,
complaining about the conditions when they should only need to clean and take
care a bit more. Slopers, crimps and jugs are surrounded and covered by a
chalky layer which is pretty heinous to remove and it’s getting more and more into
a permanent state. And this is going to change completely the nature of the texture.

This is
probably due to the quantity of people
which is getting into the climbing world, and, more important, to the very low
qualities values that these people are bringing into the outdoor world. Hard to
say where the source of the issue is and even harder to imagine a possible solution to stop the loop and
restart from the beginning. It seems that the baton of the old Bleausards generations has been somehow lost for unknown reasons.

Bouldering is
becoming like business. Business that deals with personal egos, glory and certainty
not money for most cases.. I am pretty sure some climbers don’t even like
climbing anymore.

Having patience,
failing, falling, learning, improving, experiencing, respecting, being humble is
all now replaced with illusionary good performances, quick sending time and
loads of insta likes. It might be only an opinion of few, but we are getting into
a valueless climbing world.

Almost
nobody still cares about the only and simple rule we should follow which is the
one to impact as less as possible while we do bouldering. We are lucky to practice
an activity that only counts an handful of unwritten rules; we are free and
nobody catches us with a red card if we get wrong. We just need to preserve our
heritage in order to continue to enjoy our level of freedom and to respect all the other climbers who want to enjoy rock with
passion, sacrifices and efforts.

Every of us
owns a brush. Use it. Carefully. For your performances, but even more to
limited the ruin of the rock we all love.

martedì 2 agosto 2016

The
second half of the journey took part in the classic Grampians. After an
unforgettable limestone experience in Castle Hill, I was excited to come back
on sandstone. Since Australia was on the way back home, I took the opportunity
to make another trip in this land.

This
time I was together with Giulia and we rented a cozy cabin in Wartook, instead
of staying in Stawell which is quite far away from most of the areas. Wartook
is in fact an awesome place where to stay: located quite close from the North
of the park, it is also reasonably handy for the Vic range in the South. Moreover,
this little hamlet is placed in the middle of the wildness, with kangaroos that
jump left and right in the backyard and the enjoyable sound of the birds which
hosts you every day. It was gorgeous to feel this Australian atmosphere right
next to the home door.

I chose to
come back to Australia for several reasons, but the main ones were two: checking
the Northern zones and climbing the new boulders in the South which have been
established last August. I was very excited to check the new stuff in the Vic
range.

As
probably some of you know, most of the Northern areas had been closed during my
first visit in 2015. This was due to a fire which hit the Grampians the summer
before; then climbers, hikers and tourism needed to let the wild gain its balance
again. I hence couldn’t see most of the classic sectors like Project wall,
Hollow mountain and Kindergarten.

Kindergarten
was actually the first I chose to check this year. It was ages that I wished to
climb on this wall and I couldn’t resist despite the thick mist of the first
morning. The rock is quite rough, but at the same time awesome: The texture
feels nice and the shades on the wall are beautiful: the right side of the wall
looks like a 3D painting drown ad sculpted by mother nature.

Sad
but true, there aren’t any real boulders to climb: all the problems can’t top out
and it is similar to other sectors where you can only make drop-off or forced
connections.

Afterwards,
we went to the famous Project wall, where I managed to sent the tall classic “Parallel
lines” V11 and made a reasonably quick work on the powerful benchmark “Mana”
V13. Both boulders have a gymnastic and funny style and, by the sunset, the Project
wall shows its best bright and orange shades! That was brilliant!

Finally,
we saw the Hollow mountain cave, first for a check then for a climbing day.

That
area disappointed me a lot since there are tons of lines which aren’t very logic:
connections left and right, climbing loops and problems which start somewhere
and end in the middle of the roof. For this reason I chose to grab only a flash ascent of “Dead can’t
dance” V11, letting all the other lines aside.

What
made me even more disappointed about The Northern Area was definitively the poor
ethical side of the community, especially seeing how the rock is dirty and
soiled. It wasn’t cool to see several climbers who often let the problems in
the craziest and dirtiest ways I have probably ever seen.

Kindergarten
and Hollow Mountain cave don’t get rain all year long and you could imagine how
the rock and the holds could be. Despite the infinitive doses of tick marks, several
holds have a super wide and permanent chalky halo around. This halo is often a
white, thick and irremovable crust. Right above this, there is usually the
fresh chalk left from the previous climber.

It
wasn’t always like that and obviously not all the people behaves with the same
approach, but that happened quite often. By the way, in these Northern sectors,
the sandstone has some wonderful bright orange and beige shades with some nice grippy
textures. It was a pity to see that most of the holds haven’t any of these
features anymore and the good rock is just part the blank side of the boulders.

Coming
up from Castle Hill, where everyone has an impressively sense of respect
towards the rock, it wasn’t the most lovely thing to see.

But
luckily, the wild and unknowing Victoria range in the South isn’t like that.
Down there, all the hikes are harder and most of the climbers doesn’t spend a
lot of time.

Mana, Project wall (AUS). Photo Giulia Paoletti

This
side of the Grampians is basically unknown for the wide part of the community. The
paths are wild and covered by thick bushes. Sometimes they are also steep and
slippery and there isn’t any guidebook which can lead you into these areas. If
you put all of these elements together, it is clear that many climbers stay
away.

In
the south, I could enjoy the real Australian bouldering and the previous trip
in 2015 helped me to keep the expectations a bit lower.

It
was crazy to note how the rock was different from the North; not only because
of the natural rock conformation, but also because it hasn’t been ruined as
much as it was in the North. In fact most of the rock is still at its natural
statement.

One
of the things I have learnt during these years is how much the climbers’ traffic
depends on the fame of the areas. Once you need to get information, find the
boulders into a wild zone or go for some unknown problems, a wide part of
climbers usually lose the interest in it.

That’s sad
and amazing at the same time; but it is honestly more amazing to me! This is
why the Southern zone should stay protected a bit longer.

The
Vic range was the place where I mostly wanted to go and where most of the
inspiring problems are located. The first of the list were “Trillion Dollar
Coin” and “Wave Swoop”, which have a totally different style from each other.
For a reason or another, I only had one single session on both, where I wasn’t
able to get the proper feeling. While you are on the trip you never really know
how the plans could roll and how the agenda might change.

“Wave
Swoop” is very sharp, but definitively worthy. After a couple of goes I could
link it from one move in, but obviously all the problem is pressed into the
first action. A move which is quite far from my style and it involves a lot of things
that I am not used to do like having tough skin or climbing with stiff shoes. It
is also pretty hard and excited at the same time, but I somehow wasn’t ready to
invest a high dose of time for that.

“Trillion
dollars coin” is different and harder than the wave in Mt. Fox. It deals of
another problem I removed, but also another problem I added for my next trip!

Beside
these two lines, I really wished to see tons of other stuff but obviously I
hadn’t enough energies and time to check all of them.

“Survival
of the Prettiest” and “Golden Rule” have been definitively the best ones I have
climbed. Not only from the trip, since they can probably be among the coolest
ever.

The
end came always quicker than what you usually want and I unfortunately had an
annoying heel injury for the last part. I think it should have been bizarre
seeing me limping with two pads, among the bush and damning every step I did. I
could anyway stay positive, enjoying the rest of the days out (despite the
hikes, obviously J ).

This
last section have been spent upon a beautiful hill, trying a super hard and
amazing piece of rock called “The stepping stone”. One of the hold on Stepping
stone is in my opinion a contender for the best pinch in the Grampians and the
rock quality stands out from all the rest: This made me falling in love very
quickly. Beside the rock and the climbing which are awesome, It is also located
in an amazing area. Well, you might probably don’t like the path to get there,
but once you reach the edge of the hill, the location is stunning and it has
been good to spend four days feeling out of the real world. The problem is
hard, hard and hard, but definitively enjoyable! On the last day I also got
some progresses, but one move was still missing.

There was
nothing I desired more than grabbing that pinch, but at the end I couldn’t.

I Hope to
come back stronger one day, both to try it again and to check all the other scattered
gems of the South. See you next time OZ!

giovedì 7 luglio 2016

I still can’t believe
I have been bouldering in New Zealand last May. Looking at the map, at the places
where I have gone to, it feels awesome to have visited several areas which were
only utopia in the past. I still remember myself being in front of the screen,
watching climbing videos for hours at the age of 12. I wondered if some day I
could have put my hands on Mandala, Shosholooza or many other lines that the
Big Up Production could show.

Obviously I couldn’t miss the Big Game film, which
made me dream about Castle Hill. Maybe one day, I said, with my dad laughing
and kidding. We both knew it would have been a trip too ambitious to realize.

Then, last May the 8th, I found myself
in front of the gate, waiting for a flight to Christchurch. I couldn’t even remember
how this experience would have been imagined
back in the years. Since everything was
happening very quickly, it was hard to
realize where I was truly going to. In fact, after three weeks of bouldering in
Castle Hill, it was time to leave again. During the outbound flight I could
watch the whole Castle Hill basin rolling away from above. There, more than
every other time, I could finally realize how special it was being in New
Zealand.

I don’t want to tell or describe the areas too
much in the details. I opted to chose four boulders which has been more special
than the other ones during this trip. Every boulder matches with unique emotions/feelings
and obviously every line has its own story. So these have been my four top
moments on the island.

The Big Show (Flock
Hill) - FA

Before going to NZ, I
spent lots of hours cleaning new boulders, both in Basilicata and Aosta Valley.
In some days I was lucky to find gold, other days I was even luckier to climb some
of these gorgeous projects. But I must confess I wasn’t able to climb any super
hard projects in the first months of 2016.

I was honestly satisfied about the first half
of the year, since I could establish a couple of stunners I was searching for a
very long time. It was more like a gems haunt, than a bouldering life strictly connected to the hard problems.
I knew I was going great about the quality aspect, but for sure, I wasn’t doing
the best performances ever. Comparing
2015 to 2016, it was actually a fail in terms of numbers. I first didn’t
care too much about this, but in some days this aspect started to build in me some
pressures.

I admit I felt ridiculous having these doubts.
First of all I didn’t realize from where this little pressure could come from.
I was totally okay and proud about what I was doing, but knowing that most of community
is only fascinated by hard climbs, I somehow disagreed with my inner voice. I
couldn’t catch if it was because I wasn’t climbing as hard as before, or simply
because I felt I must do hard lines. In the second case, it would have been more like a wraith pressure coming from external
factors.

The big show
definitively didn’t change my inner statement. Rather, it probably gave me more
push to stay on my current side, to follow my continue energy, doing new lines
and just thinking about the beauty of the rock. At least it gave me the
feedback I was doing what was really nice to me.

Even this time, any hard ascent would have happened.
But on the other hand, I fall in love with what I was doing: its beauty seduced
me totally.

During that day in Flock Hill, I was somehow troubled
and negative. After a long and easy warm up for my elbow injury, I moved to the
boulder to find a proper place to bind the rope. This is usually a crucial and heinous
point of the day, since I don’t like the gear and the anchor’s procedures. After
spending the usual time being nervous for these, I found a stone where to tie
the rope. I wasn’t totally safe, so I asked to Giulia to pull the other side of
the rope and the stone didn’t move. So, it was okay after all. J

Once hanged on the rope, I could realize I
would have never tried it within that day: I was scary even looking down. I was
really insecure and I couldn’t visualize myself on the upper moves, 6 meters
high off the ground, with 3 pads and a scary girl at the bottom. But, almost unconsciously, I forced myself to
put chalk on giving it a far touch of hope. Before seeing the top section, I thought I could
have sent this project pretty quickly; but at that point all my certainties
were falling apart and I needed to get into reality soon. Anything wasn’t working
well, everything felt harder than what I thought here in NZ: the top outs, the
style, tie the ropes, the hikes.

I went for a second top rope go and I begun to
hang on the holds, although I kept to feel scary. Since the negative sense was eroding
me, I realized I needed help, so I started a long chat with Giulia. She usually
helps me a lot in these situations, where I can only see the black side of life.
She could find a touch of positive and she shined me that the things weren’t rolling
as bad as I thought. I needed patience, she supposed.

That chat gave me a huge help. In fact, the
third top-rope session made me get clearer ideas and I was also able to link
several moves together, being scary still. I had to face I had a relevant
changing after talking with her. I took another break time, where I kept
talking about the situation and the feelings which were getting better.

Despite none of us was telling, it almost
seemed I was thinking about a go from the bottom soon. We looked at each other
and we both knew it was too early for that. I still had a couple of doubts in
the upper part, but I opted to skip a further attempt from above. We barely set
our three crash pads. I was trusting in her spotting as I had never done before,
I breath and I approached towards the starting holds. If I would have failed it
would have been a big fall, for sure. But if not, it would have been probably
one of the best climbing moment in my carrier. I took the risk and I turned my
mind off. After few moves I could feel the right flow coming up. The climb is consistent
all the way to the top, but the more I climbed the more I could trust me. I
reached the no fall zone where a precarious smear got me scary. That foothold
was very high, slippery and small. I pushed my speedster on to it, trusting as
much as I could. I reached the mantle and I topped it out.

The Big Show was definitively one of my
favorite climbing moment ever. I went down and I looked at both Giulia and the
boulder. I couldn’t even image this happy ending few hours before.

The Big Show FA, Flock Hill (NZ).

Biotronic (Quantum field) - FA

An exception in the area. A contender for the
steepestboulder of the basin and this could say a lot, considering
that the other contenders might be a couple, no more.

Biotronic has been
very important for my trip, my season and probably for my climbing life in
general. It is rare to find a hard project to work, with only the holds you
need, with compact rock and, more important, something you can enjoy from the
first go until the last one. If you also consider it might be one of the best
line of the area, all the feelings were going to be positive this time.

Biotronic could summarize all the emotions of
bouldering in a full and single and perfect package. It is very hard to describe the tons of
aspects and features I constantly look for in bouldering. Biotronic had, for
most part of the features, very high values and it could keep me enjoy the
process despite I couldn’t catch one of the move after three long sessions. That move was hard, balancing and very tricky
to me.

When the move finally happened, it felt easier
than what I excepted. I can’t tell how happy I was to have figured out such a nice
move where the success was made by micro details.

The day later I came back and I quickly repeated
the move after few goes. There were very positive vibes that day in the air, but
the high upper slab started to worry me more than in every other session. I
knew I was close to link it all together, but I couldn’t check the top part
with the rope. Knowing I was close, made me aware about the danger and the risk
of the upper part. A risk I hadn’t looked after during the previous days.

Hard to hear, but I
got to the point of a very radical and miserable decision: I wanted to make a
drop off after reaching the grove where you can remove your hands. I know it
was going to be a very shameful deal, but I wished to link those moves together.
I would have done it drop off for myself, letting the boulder as a totally open
project for the next braver climber.

I took this decision and then I rested to
execute it in this way. My mind was very relaxed, knowing that I wasn’t going
to risk a bad fall. I was climbing very well mentally, because I chose the
shortest way of the miserable drop off. I could do the whole first part very
well and I reached the groove where I thought to leave the problem.

Obviously, I changed quickly my idea. I
couldn’t jump down. Few minutes later that horrible decision, I was only
thinking about smearing and trying despite the risk I knew to take. I asked for
chalk and Stuart smartly extended my bag with his stick. I chalked my hands, my
shoes and a couple of smearing. It was time to do it and didn’t look back
anymore. I breath and I could feel myself relaxed enough. I went up slowly,
carefully, safely, feeling every smear, every poor texture, every vibes the
shoes could gave me. I reached the top and I simply thought how stupid I was to
only think about a possible drop off.

Biotronic FA, Quantum Field (NZ). Photo Giulia Paoletti

Kiss the sky low (Flock Hill)

Basically the only
repeating performance of the trip and another boulder which gave me back a kind
of confidence. It was months that I didn’t try something as hard as this one and
that wouldn’t be a project or a boulder I cleaned by my own. A part of mine
still needed to climb an hard boulder for the confused reasons I explained
before and “Kiss the sky” helped somehow to shake off those negative and wraith
pressures.

Right before Kiss the
sky, I could grab the third ascent of a beautiful problem named “The little
book of calm” and this also helped.

I could learn that having lower expectations
and giving less importance at the boulders could make me a better climber and
this is definitively a way I want to take for my future. I did it few times in
the past and it worked well, so I promised to myself to be colder and more
relaxed in the next trips.

That day in Flock
Hill we experienced a very apocalyptic wind since the sun arose. The pads
couldn’t stay. It was cold, annoying and damn hard to climb. Me, Giulia and
Stuart needed to switch our turns as pad keepers, otherwise the pads would have
flown away. I had never seen something similar. We thought to have seen the
worst, but in the middle of the afternoon, when we got to Kiss the sky, a
stronger wind came. We set the pads, but they weren’t able to stay on the
ground despite our efforts. We could see the water flowing from the pounds
about the next boulders. The scenario was unreal.

Then, we finally had few seconds of calm; I was
with my shoes on ready for my flash go. I am not a super fan of the flash go,
but sometimes I like to attempt some problems in this style. I was in a rush because
of the wind; I knew it was going to blow again soon and I didn’t remove my
hoodie. I climbed the boulder until the last hard move: a huge span to a decent
and rounded sloper behind a blind corner. I missed it for a very little.
Probably the rush wasn’t the best thing for the situation and I wasn’t focused
as I wished. I fall down and I immediately jumped again on the boulders doing
the big moves easily. While I was still checking the exit, Gulia lost a couple
of pads. The last holds aren’t so bad, but it seemed to be a weird and
balancing climbing. I kept going, while I looked down seeing no pads and starting
to be really scary. I reached the slippery top and I needed to get down, but
the wind was still making me losing the balance. I reached the bottom and I
lied on the pads.

I waited several minutes and then the wind
turned into a chill breeze for a while. I started my second go and this time I
removed my hoodie. It was probably the key. J Everything was okay: my climbing,
the big move, the wind and the pads.

Obviously it is not the best boulder on earth,
that’s clear. One of those sample of mediocre boulder, but with brilliant moves
which simply make you enjoy the entire learning process.

Cold Fusion may
represents Castle Hill in a nutshell: 3 meters of rock with a slightly overhang
angle, stand start from a slippery pocket and a nasty edge which is basically
one of the few holds that the entire wall has to offer. Bad feet, one of those it
is also insanely sharp for your right shoe. Actually they are not bad smears,
but every footholds point in the wrong direction. Nearly at the top, there are two
opposite slopy features into a deep hole, and then a final illusionary jug
before the rounded lip. To cut it short, one of those boulder with all the
holds you need: one more would be too much, one less and it would be
impossible. Again, another typical boulder that the number lovers are going to
hate probably, since it’s only rated as V11.

While you climb it, every mistake can lead to
further and bigger mistakes the higher you go, until the point where your
position is simply too wrong to keep going and you are off the wall. To reach
the beta, the learning process required me a lot of goes, energy and skin. Some
mistakes started to be clear after a while, making some small and tiny adjustments
for the later attempts.

After a
bit, I could get how similar this boulder is to “La Prou” in Cresciano.
Probably harder, since you haven’t anything to pull on. I realized how much
important was to put the first high foot to start in the precise spot. This
could allow me to adjust the first hold well, so getting higher with my body,
finding the right position and trying
the first move in a proper balance. If that foot wasn’t perfectly located,
there weren’t any chances to grab the first sloper correctly and I was off.
Since the first foot was hard to place,
it quickly became clear how important was the zone where I step on the pad before
pulling. If I step good, I could put the foot as I wanted, hence having chances;
if the foot wasn’t good, all the other pieces of the puzzle couldn’t match.

I am obviously a fan of these lines, but I need
to admit it may get you frustrated. Talking with Stuart between the breaks, we
analyzed the body positions, the moves and we also talked about the NZ style in
general. We wondered why people don’t go to Castle Hill very often. Cold Fusion
was actually a perfect sample to talk about the poor traffic of climbers. I
think the area could be hard for someone who takes care about numbers, fashion
or quick ticks.

More tries, more rest and more studying from
the bottom. Other sessions and other improvements, but still the moves couldn’t
come easy. I knew that to climb it, I needed to climb it well without doing any
efforts. Other break, other studying.

Then I stepped perfectly on the pad and I pushed
on the right foot. It was good, I already knew it was going to happen even if I
was only at the beginning. This time no mistakes, every details could just
build better adjustments for the next moves and while I was climbing I could
think I was going to do it. The problem was somehow solved and I hit the jug.

Just to be sure than anything can’t come easier
here, I still had troubles on the mantle, but after a couple of minutes, I
could stand at the top of one of the freakiest problem I have ever completed!

domenica 8 maggio 2016

It’s sometime good to stop for a while, reflecting and realizing how
lucky my hometown position is for bouldering. It's something that I
usually underestimate, but in some moments I have the brilliant feeling to note
how many good things I can do in a couple of hours driving. Beyond the ultra
classic and nowadays very well known areas of Ticino, Valais and Varazze, there
are also other little sectors where to go: Isolated locations, where the crowds
fortunately don’t like to go and where a climbing day can often turns into a
very pleasant day with only the wild around you. Last year I spent a full
and very busy period in April in Aosta valley, on the back side of my
home town, where these little sectors showed me hidden gems,
scattered zones, good rock and possibilities to clean new good lines.

During the past year I only had 3 weeks to enjoy these beautiful
balance, in addition of a couple of cold and good weeks in
December. Last April, I was coming from 2 Months in Font and I was heading to
the Grampians in May, right 20 days after the trip in the Forest. I had short
time, my shape and motivations was extremely high, so I didn’t think about
training or other stuff and I spent loads of time in climbing and
exploring almost every day.

This season things rolled differently; I had two months between my usual
winter trip and the chasing winter of our summer, my shape wasn’t as good as 12
months ago and I hence needed to balance a bit of training with cleaning first
and climbing then. That has been for sure a good time, even if sometimes was
hard to manage both things giving 100% on both parts. Besides, I have been
also focused on other aspects like a partnership with a new sponsor,
editing new clips at home, shaping some climbing holds and make a plan for the upcoming
trip to New Zealand and Australia.

Today is the last day at home and I obviously think about the
experiences I had on these new boulders. I don’t want to dwell too much with
words, since I have uploaded several photos on my Instagram page when
something emotional came out. I wanted to share a little gallery here
below, especially for what concerns a very funny, and muddy, cave I have been
cleaning in the last couple of weeks.

It is now time to think about the next trip to Castle Hill and say hello
to these places until the next fall.The new ones from this springtime:

giovedì 17 marzo 2016

It was one
of those lonely night at home, right before the dinner time. January was almost
over and a little training loop was coming to an end. It had not been an
efficient training loop; for a reason or another I missed the proper pace and I
felt sorer than what I should have been. That night was the end of a resting
day and I was managing the last things before my upcoming trip: a tour among
the southern Italian sandstone boulders. During the journey I would have been
alone and many thoughts was making me doubtful. The last time I moved for a
long travel was in November. Like it usually befalls, in the previous winter
months, I lost energies up on the projects in Aosta valley. I also went to
Ticino a couple of times, then I stuck myself into the gym for wide part of
January. I felt I needed a little change, so I opted to set the rock climbing a
side for a bit. At the end of the month, I felt psyched to travel once again. I
needed to check new places, new areas, new stones. But, more than other times,
I needed to look for something special, something a bit out of the lines. At
the same moment, I also felt frightened to move for something I didn't know. I
felt like a bit trapped from the home comfort and by the family warmth of the
closest areas, which gave me assurance and safety. I went for the dinner at my
Granma's place, like it often happens, and I kept thinking about the travel of
the upcoming days.

My grandma
asked me a favor for the next Tuesday and I replied I couldn't do it since I
would have been off. I explained I was moving to Basilicata, in the southern
part of Italy for a couple of weeks or maybe more. She still reminds well, so
she knew I hadn't been down there yet. "Why do you go there, are there any
special stones?" she asked. I couldn't give her a proper reply. I just
said I hadn't no clue about what she asked. That was in fact a true answer. I
heard rumors about the area, I asked a couple of opinions and I also checked a
bunch of photos, but I didn't know if the trip would have been worthy or not. I
was extremely keen to go down and look for new brilliant lines. The psyche was
high, but obviously nothing was guaranteed. I could have found nothing, or
maybe everything.

I left just
few nights later. It was in the middle of the nighttime and nobody was around.
The journey was long and the more I went ahead, the more that question
resounded in my mind. Who knows if there would have been the things I was
looking for. I felt insecure, to be honest. My car was at its last journey. It
is a very hold station wagon and since a couple of months it is not totally
safe in the highway bends. It somehow could mirror my travel doubts. Why, I
asked to myself once again; Tons of good projects were awaits in the valleys next
to my place, while I was doing a 1000 km travel for something I wasn't sure to
find. I couldn't get an answer, but I kept driving until the next afternoon. I
left the freeway in Foggia and the landscapes were absolutely Southern.

In the late
afternoon I got to Campomaggiore, the village above the climbing sectors. The little
hamlet has a very quiet atmosphere and this gave me somehow a touch of
certainty. The B&B was cozy and pretty. The first steps into my room helped
me a bit to remove the fears I stored during the journey. I felt home
atmosphere and I had the comforts I wished. Even if I hadn't seen any pieces of
rock yet, I couldn't imagine the sandstone and I felt a bit more positive.
Right before night, all the thoughts went away and I felt serene again. By this
time I was there, and the step to move down was completed. I was satisfied to
have won once again the home trap and I started to built positive thoughts. The
morning later I would have had appointment with Marco, a friend of mine from
Potenza who was free to show me around. I sincerely hoped that the answer of my
grandma could find a touch of true. Even if the first day would haven't been
enough, I truly wanted to clarify those doubts within the end of the stay.

Marco carried
me up to the area and after the hike among the cows we got to the first blocs.
The quality of the first 2 rocks was pretty high and upper to my expectations.
The first one, "Ole'" 7C, presented some spider webs at the bottom
and a Font "tortoise" holds at the top. Not only the looking was
good, but even the texture was something I really liked. The promises were now
a bit higher and I was fading into a positive certainty.

I spent the
first days jumping from a classic to another. Michele Caminati checked the zone
back in the seasons and many of the boulders he freed have an amazing aspect.
"La chiave del Sole" 8A+ has been even better than what I supposed
and "Empire state boulder" (again 8A+) went absolutely beyond any
expectations.

La chiave del Sole (2nd asc), Basilicata.

Empire State Boulder (2nd asc), Basilicata. Photo Marco Giorgio

Marco had
more free time than what we thought and we fortunately went chasing together.
We found many things to put in the list; some of those were tall and pure, with
a super solid sandstone. If I was satisfied from the classics, I was probably
even more fulfilled to see all of these nice virgin boulders. The exploration
side was obviously the fact who worried me more, since it wasn't guaranteed at
all. I didn't only find interesting boulders to clean, but I also checked different
things which are worthy to make a trip back in the next years.

I spent several
days of the trip and a good amount of efforts into a specific and beautiful
project. This bloc is one of the first you meet on the way up and it features
the same Mt Fox's rock; namely the typical famous, and infamous, orange spider-webs
conformations of the Grampians. After two intensive and long days of attempts,
I managed to get the right sequence and climb all the single moves. The way I
was using is very specific, conditions depending and finger strength requiring.
It counts a total of five moves, where the crimpy full angle of the fingers is
necessary. I hence needed to keep my fingers really close for a long range of
time. Being this one of my weakest skills, the experience turned into a hard
deal to manage. I was anyway happy to see little improvements day by day;
despite the conditions were getting worse and worse and the skin started to be moist
after the weeks, I felt I was getting the right feelings on the full crimp
actions and I was psyched to see the parts coming together. I kept forcing
myself to keep the fist super close, and I surprisingly could see some
progresses after a while.

The last
cool day was coming and I knew it was the last chance for a good and reasonable
session. I woke up early as usual and I was ready under the crimps at 8 o'clock.
In the very early morning the area tends to be humid, and, since the boulder is
facing south, it quickly gets warm. I so had a good windows opportunity between
8 and 11, when the attempts could have had a sense and it would have been dry,
but not insanely hot. Few degrees less could have helped me a bit, but it wasn't
time to complain. I began the session and I went actually well in few occasions.
I missed the sending before the last move and I could climb the problem in two overlapping
parts. 11 o clock came, skin was very over and the sun was covering all the
face making the rock burning. I was quite disappointed to miss it, but somehow
happy to know what is waiting for my next visit. The doubtful pre-journey
questions were a memory only.

Project, Basilicata. Photo Marco Giorgio

Searching
for new and exciting lines consisted in the big goal of my trip, mostly during
the second half of the stay. I wished to find something very special and, at
that point, I knew the chaces were high. During one of the long breaks between
the project sessions, I went exploring a lower part of an old sector. Marco had
already been there in the past, but he couldn't remember if there were any special
things or not. We progressed with quick and secure steps through the known part
of the zone, then our steps became slower and the glances left and right were
more intense. We went further and we got into another blocs band. We eyed a
bunch of great stones in the middle of the forest and we followed an imaginary
path to reach them. Coming out of the thick vegetation, we step in front of
what I was truly looking for. It was too early to be fascinated, so I opted to
give a deeper and rational looking. After several minutes I understood it was
very doable, not too hard and I was sure it was going to be a brilliant
problem; One of those I have always wished to find in my life. The day was over
and we went back to the car, making the appointment for the day after. It was
tacit where we were going to go; that line needed to born and we both were
fascinated by its beauty. The morning later I brushed an old highball, called
"Urban Cowboy" V8, one of the best arete I have ever climbed. Happy
from the beauty of this, we were ready to step into the new amazing project. We
were cleaning and chalking in a deep silence; both lost into their own
thoughts. Just few technical comments seemed to be allowed. The atmosphere was
unique. In the late afternoon it was ready, and I quickly started to try the
sequences with a couple of pads.

After a
session I knew I could have done it and the quality of the moves gave a further
touch of beauty. We looked at the clock; Marco needed to be at the gym right
after and he had to move around five o'clock. I would have had a further hour,
but I really wanted to climb with him. We found the line together, we cleaned
it and we were both part of this process. I cooled down my fingers and I
started positive. I step through the crux, I went ahead and I reached the upper
part, where the prow became very wide and I am at the full extension with my
arms. I had some troubles before the exit, but I fortunately got it. I topped
it out. I had climbed my favorite line and many efforts had been paid off in
few seconds only. The name choosen is "Geometrie non Euclidee". The
research could start once again and I felt happy to have found a positive
answers to the many pre-journey questions.

The days later,
we were able to find other nice looking problems and many other projects I
couldn't clean for questions of time. I will think about those for many days, until
the next time I will be back in this land. I will definitively start with a
more secure approach, but always searching for something new and not very guaranteed.
Thank you Basilicata, hope to see you soon!